"But I don't feel enough acquainted with him to introduce a gentleman whom I never saw in my life till two hours ago." "You are right, my dear fellow; excuse me," replied Captain de Banyan, looking very much disappointed. "I dare say, if I should show him the autograph of the Emperor of France, he would be very glad to know me." "No doubt of it. At any rate, I recommend you to make the trial." "Yes; but the mischief of it is, I have left all those papers at home." "That's unfortunate," added Lieutenant Somers, who had some serious doubts in regard to the existence of those papers. "So it is. If I had been lucky enough to have made the acquaintance of that young lady, as you have, I would not let my aspirations stop short of the stars of a major-general." "You need not as it is, if you do your duty." "Ah! my dear fellow, you are as sentimental as a girl of sixteen. I am a modest man; but, in my estimation, there are ten thousand men in the army as good as I am. They can't all be major-generals, can they?" "Certainly not." "Then, if you live a few months longer, you will find out how good a thing it is to have a friend at court. You are a modest young man; but I suppose you think there isn't another man in the army who is quite your equal, and that your merit and your bravery will make a brigadier of you in less than a year. It's a good thing to think so; but----" "I don't think so. That would be modesty with a vengeance." "I was a sentimental boy like you once, and I was just as certain that I should be made a field-marshal, and have the command of the French army in the Crimea----" "I thought you were in the English army in the Crimea," interposed the young lieutenant, eager to change the subject. "Certainly, in the English army; that's what I said," continued the gallant captain, entirely unmoved by the interruption. "I was just as sure of having the command of the British army in the Crimea as you are of becoming a brigadier by the time we get into Richmond. But I have no friends at court as you have now." "I never thought of such a thing as being a brigadier," protested Somers. "I never even expected to become a second lieutenant." "It isn't much to be a brigadier. I served with 'Old Rosey' in West Virginia for a time. We had a captain there who didn't know any more about military than a swine does about Lord Chesterfield's table etiquette. He went into action with a cane in his hand, hawbucking his company about just as a farmer does a yoke of cattle. That fellow is a brigadier-general now; and there's hope for you and me, if we can only have a friend at court." "I am higher now than I ever expected to be, and I wouldn't give a straw for fifty friends at court." "That's because you are sentimental; but you'll get over that."